Any audiophiles here? What's your favorite setup?

I’m a gear head when it comes to guitars and amps but for listening to music I don’t have any high end gear except a set of Westone ear buds that I think are killer. I wear them when the top is down on my convertible or when mowing. They kill all extraneous noise and for my ear sound killer.

I listen to rock, bluegrass, and jazz. These are the same styles of music I enjoy playing.

I love music with a passion and not a high end kind of guy but BOSE speakers impress me very much for the money. I listen thru bluetooth for the sound. Ok is using bluetooth as good a sound as a plugin?

I’m not a Bose fan at all and I use to own an entire Bose 5.1 system. I fell for there sales gimmicks at a Bose store and bought it before I new much. Once I started researching home theater systems, I realized my mistake. Bose are way, way overpriced and they use cheap materials in their speakers. You can get speakers that sound twice as good for half the price, which is what I eventually did.

I don’t consider myself and audiophile but I am a Home Theater nut. I love listen to my soundtrack and scores collection but my passion is movies. While I don’t have a high end HT system, I do think I have built a quality sound system that most people would think sounds really good. I’m one of those nuts that owns an SPL meter and constantly checks the calibration of my HT system.

My front speaker are a pair of Paradigm Mini Monitors v3 bookshelf speaker, center channel is a Paradigm CC-170 and rear speakers are a pair of Paradigm ADP-170. My subwoofer is a SVS PB-10. I recently bought a new receiver, a Denon AVR-S930H. Honestly, it doesn’t sound quite as good as my old Denon AVR-2808ci but, I needed more HDMI inputs and 4K HDR/Dolby Vision support. My new Denon also support Dolby Atmos but, I still haven’t purchase any height speakers.

I’m happy with my system and I think it sounds great when watching movies. It may not hold up to an audiophile’s ear but, my family enjoys it.

Just wish my wife would let me crank the volume up more often. She just doesn’t understand that movies are suppose to be loud! I’ve only take the volume up to reference once on this new Denon. My wife was gone and I decided to show the kids what reference sounded like. Played the first few minutes of Star Wars at that level. They all thought it was too loud, I thought it was great. While my speakers can technically handle reference, their life would probably be shortened if I did that on a regular basis. I actually keep my AVR volume limit set to -10db just to protect the speakers some in case the kids accidentally turned them up too much.

Sorry for the rant, I could go on for hours about home theaters.

Music addict here.

Energy RVS left, right, and center with a Carver Sunfire woofer. Infinity Reference 2000s for rear. Denon DCM 420 cd changer, and a Denon turntable with an AT8008 cartridge. Harman Kardon 5.1 recvr and cassette deck. Sony cd recorder.
Audioquest cabling.

It is good for home theater, but i reeeeally like it in two channel for music.

This lil' hifi images like a female dog :wink: . . . lots of back to front definition.

Rock, jazz, country, classical . . . . no opera.

4Q Basket Case said:

Thanks, CA. Long story short, I have a wired setup in my home, with speakers in four different areas. The previous owner put it in about 10 years ago. But now, I get loss of signal and volume in some peripheral speakers, and one speaker is out altogether. It's clear I need to spend some money before it gets worse.

Replacing the peripherals with wireless would sure be easier. Are there any wireless technologies, suitable for home / consumer use, other than Bluetooth? I enjoy good sound, but would not put myself in the audiophile category. If I have a home genre, it would probably be Americana, but I like all kinds of music -- Nirvana to the Decemberists, to Brandi Carlile and Sturgill Simpson.

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It's unlikely that the speaker that is not working is broken. It's probably the connection that is failing or a potentiometer that is oxidized. I have speakers in the ceiling of my 100 year old dental office that have both issues. If there is a potentiometer (volume knob) on the speaker, spray it with contact cleaner and spin the knob to remove the oxidation. If it's a connection, you just need to see where the speaker wire is connected to the main feed and clean the connection.

I don't know much about audio, but I like my Klipsch subwoofer and sound bar.

TIDE-HSV said:

My outfit is ancient. I have a Mitsubishi preamp and power amp, which drives two suspended Bose 901 speakers. A separate Yamaha power amp drives and middle channel on a third 901 on a pedestal, backed up to a room divider. I had an old Dual for years but I recently bought an Audio-Technica ATLP-120, mainly for its USB recording capability, so I can digitize a bunch of old vinyl. Replaced the stylus immediately...

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three 901s in the same room is intriguing . .. . all run through the same active EQ?

is the cartridge Ortolan or Ortofon?